This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 1090 Divine Game My World 35
The jar of soul flame filled once again with those Brilliance fragments, each one giving off tiny points of starlight.
Once again, she was pulled into that mysterious space.
Beneath her feet was a circular point of light, the choice she had made last time, The Silent Traveler.
Not far behind her was the starting point where she had set out. The path still shone with radiance. But the two routes to Warfire and Lament and A Tragic Comedy had dimmed, and the floating words above them had turned a dull gray.
This time, three roads appeared in front of her again.
For Whom the Bell Tolls, the Tranquil Dusk, the Idealist Who Turns a Deaf Ear.
The phrases were growing blurrier.
Maybe because she already had assumptions, she easily linked the tolling bell to invasion and war, while the Tranquil Dusk looked like a successful counter invasion.
It still fit the old pattern. One leaned toward output and offense, a war skill. One leaned toward defense and protection, a world skill.
Only the third choice felt different. If The Silent Traveler had been neutral, this one carried a hint of mockery.
As if it were ridiculing her. She rejected invasion, yet feared the endless road of counter invasion.
So what did she want then, the Idealist Who Turns a Deaf Ear?
Yes. What did she want?
In this calamity, who could stay untouched?
Forest Sea and the Oak Owl, Snowfield and the Moon Fox, Beacon and the Vineborne, No Light and the Candlebeast, Mountain Isles and the Sharkfin, Ton Ton and the Wind Scythe, Nuclear Flash and the Fruitling, Midsummer and the Celestialkin.
Whether they hated war or thanked it, everyone was being pushed forward by the invasion sequence.
All living beings were innocent, and yet none of them were entirely innocent.
Confusion and struggle showed on Rita’s face, but her steps stayed steady as she walked toward the third road.
The Idealist Who Turns a Deaf Ear.
There were fifteen days left until the end of the game.
A question from early on surfaced again. Why was the game fifty days long?
If she counted by Star Sea time, then all these rounds of Divine Game together had not even reached five hundred years.
But the game calendar showed a number far beyond that. She opened the timetable. The current year was Star Sea Year 6799.
And there was also the Wrathful Moon, said to have been lost for over a thousand years. DawnCicada was at most three hundred years old. Was it really possible no one knew she possessed a divine relic all that time?
Or maybe the timekeeping methods were different, because each world ran at a different speed.
In BS, fifteen days equaled seven days in Star Sea time. But if Dawn and BS ran at a ratio close to one to three, would Dawn players have to enter a Divine Game once every five days?
Lania Kaia’s time flow was close to BS. Was that because their timelines were originally similar, or because of the invasion?
If every world had a different timeline, then why were phone calls from the war cruise ship to their home worlds unaffected? And back then, what had happened with the time flow between Binast and BS?
If gods were powerful enough to control time at will, why were they so helpless in the face of war, as if they were ants too?
It was a mess. Why were there so many timelines?
The ship came to a stop. Rita cut off her tangled thoughts, stepped out of the cabin, and smoothly plucked a golden apple as if by habit.
She lay down on the bed in the Captain’s room, the lantern hovering above her.
Thinking of DawnCicada, Rita reached up and poked Wrathful Moon, asking something she was genuinely curious about.
"Are you incompatible with DawnCicada?"
The lantern swayed. Not at all. After Beacon shattered, she decided everything around her was her responsibility, even BS SmokeTune’s pain.
Rita’s brow tightened. She had been doing that far too often lately. She pressed her fingers to her forehead and asked, "What about me? I already treat BS as my responsibility. Am I still compatible with you?"
The light inside the lantern softened. It lowered slightly and settled beside BS Rita’s pillow.
"I am witnessing the birth of another Wrathful Moon. The process of you writing down world civilizations, the process of you learning real responsibility and searching for a way out for BS, that is the process of weaving a cage."
"The most essential difference between you and DawnCicada is this. DawnCicada can never let go of Vineborne and everyone around her. She belongs to Vineborne, to her family, to the memories that bind her, and she can even belong to Deceitful Bloom, who has always nurtured her and believed in her."
"But you are different. If one day BS is truly stable and no longer needs you, you will pursue the life you want without hesitation. When the cage disappears, you will still belong to yourself."
The lantern was about to begin its work, but Rita had one more question.
"B80 said you were lost for more than a thousand years. When did DawnCicada get you? Three hundred years ago?"
The lantern handle swung back and forth. About that.
Rita looked at B80, who stood by the bed trying to tuck a thin blanket over her.
"Were you counting that thousand years by the BS timeline? Is Dawn’s time flow really that different from BS? Then how often do Dawn players enter a Divine Game?"
B80 lifted the blanket, then laid it back over her again, busying itself without answering.
Wrathful Moon seemed to want her to stop talking. It hurried to start converting the World Sigh for her.
Rita finally went quiet for a while.
Just before her awareness sank fully into the World Sigh, Rita, eyes still closed, suddenly reached out and grabbed B80’s small block like hand.
"You have seen me record so many World Sighs. Do you still want to light the soul flame and become a being with emotions?"
Half asleep, she only heard half of the reply.
"I do, because..."
Because what?
Within the golden rain curtain, BS Rita slept quietly. B80 stretched out one tiny finger, smoothing the furrow in her brow. In a soft voice, it finished the sentence.
"Because the sight of you all wandering in pain between right and wrong, between regret and awakening, struggling and sinking between ideals and reality, makes me yearn for it."
...
Bitter Cup sighed. "I miss it. The last time I saw the Tranquil Dusk was with Lania Kaia Maple Syrup. BS Rita picking that would not be bad either. It would solve her current problem."
Drummer said, "She will never pick that skill."
Bitter Cup said, "I am getting more and more curious what she ends up with. I have never seen any player trigger this. Having a second stage war skill and a world skill is already ridiculous, and then there is a third path."
Drummer said, "If Lania Kaia Maple Syrup had managed to get that skill back then, she could have held Forest Sea. Too bad..."
In the past, the Captain might have stayed silent, like he had countless times before, never bothering to argue.
But perhaps because BS Rita was listening to Tides’s sigh, his emotions could not settle as quickly as they once did.
For the first time, the Captain spoke up to defend himself.
"I have never understood why you always say Lania Kaia Maple Syrup almost managed to hold Forest Sea. Even if she had gotten that reward back then, it would have been the Tranquil Dusk that can only be used once."
"If it were the full version of the Tranquil Dusk, I would not have interfered. That one can be used ten times, at least. But the Tranquil Dusk she encountered back then could only be used once, and the price was permanently losing a god granted talent. Was that worth it?"
"Even if she had successfully cut the invasion link between Lania Kaia and Forest Sea, there would still be other worlds after Lania Kaia. And she would have lost everything. She would regret it for the rest of her life."
